ICSD considers athletic trainer program

CEDAR CITY – The Iron County School Board plans to use a work meeting Tuesday to review proposals made by orthopedic medical groups to participate in a program involving the employment of athletic trainers for public high school athletes.

In the event of an athlete’s injury, the school’s trainer would refer that athlete to a medical group for treatment.

Shannon Dulaney, superintendent for the Iron County School District, said the district sent out Requests for Proposals inviting medical groups to participate in the athletic training program. The deadline for proposal submission was Friday at 4 p.m.

Two local medical groups are expected to have proposals reviewed by the board. They are Intermountain Healthcare, which employs Dr. Robert Nakken, or Southern Utah Sports Medicine, led by Dr. Randy Delcore. However, Dulaney said the RFPs were opened online to medical groups that are not necessarily headquartered in Iron County.

She said she knows of seven organizations within the state and out-of-the-state viewing the proposal applications so there is the possibility that another organization could submit a proposal as well. She said out-of-state organizations could be affiliated with organizations within the state and have the means to provide services through in-state providers.

Dulaney said after the board reviews the proposals, it may decide to award the agreement with the district to the medical group it views to have the best proposal or choose to have the parties make presentations. If the board chooses to consider presentations, that would allow them to ask questions of the presenters.

“That will be decided on Tuesday,” she said.

Scott Burns, who is represents Dr. Delcore’s Southern Utah Sports Medicine Medical Group, said the group submitted a proposal at 3 p.m. Friday.

Burns said because Intermountain Healthcare is a non-profit organization, it does not pay taxes. He described the entire situation as “interesting.”

There are close to 40 school districts in Utah, he said, and only three of them have an athletic trainer program.

“Looking at it from 60,000 feet, you say, ‘is this a program or a service that’s so important to Utah’s athletes that it’s something that should be institutionalized and paid for by the school district?’” he said.

In a perfect world, Burns said, if a school district is going have this type of program, most people would agree that the district should pay for it. His concern is that there is a possibility of placing employees of a hospital or any other group into a school system to work for that system.

Burns said, in that situation, an athletic trainer with ties to any medical organization could be referring injured athletes and their families to that organization. That referral process could put a burden on private medical groups such as Dr. Delcore’s that provide those services and pay taxes.

Dulaney was asked about the issue of the ICSD, being an entity receiving tax revenue from private citizens and businesses, receiving salary contributions for the athletic trainers from Intermountain Healthcare, a non-profit organization. She declined to comment, noting that she had not yet seen Intermountain’s proposal at that time.

“So I don’t know exactly what they’re going to be offering, and then what we, as a district, are going to need to contribute as far as providing those athletic trainers,” she said.

She also said although the review of the proposals will be done in a closed session during the work meeting, any vote by the board must be carried out in public.

Follow Cathy Wentz on Twitter, @CathleenWentz

More information

For background information regarding the proposal for the athletic trainer program in the Iron County School District, see the website, delcore.org.